There’s no better place than right here in The Trentonian to read about all the trials and tribulations of Tony Mack’s tenure as mayor of Trenton.

We have documented the dissatisfaction of the citizens with his actions — and, at times, inactions — and we have chronicled the charges he soon faces in a court of law.

But this time, we’re on Mayor Mack’s side. We strongly oppose the city council’s resolution to cut Tony Mack’s salary by more than half.

The council says it needs to cut Mack’s salary from $126,400 to $60,000 — a savings of $66,400 — for budgetary reasons. They say that the city is in peril and needs these funds to help battle a budget deficit.

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We’ll get back to the budget angle, but first, this isn’t a move to help the budget. It’s a move that is strictly political, personal and punitive.

Politically, the council cannot legally remove the mayor, even though he has not performed to the expectations of the citizens or the council members. So, they have decided instead to make him uncomfortable in an effort to force him to resign.

The mayor also is facing criminal charges, but like everyone else in America, he is innocent until proven guilty. If he is the mayor of Trenton, then he is the mayor of Trenton.

If he is free to carry out his duties as given to him by the citizens, then he should not be punished more than what any other public servant might be.

Does this open the door to citizens asking about the performance of their city council representative? Would they then call for their salaries to be reduced because of inadequate job performance? This begs the question of who’s to play judge, when it comes to a public servant’s job evaluation — and it opens a Pandora’s box that might be better left shut.

The council, it would appear, is also doing this to place themselves higher in the pantheon of city politics, in effect, to say “Look what we are doing for you, the people we serve.” But it’s just a smokescreen and another distraction from real issues.

Why not put pressure on the mayor to collaborate with council to take drastic measures against the violence that plagues this city? Why not try to pool resources and save the lives of citizens?

That’s the problem: This isn’t about serving the city or its people. This proposed salary cut is just a personal attack, plain and simple, on a man the council has decided —over the heads of the people who elected him — can no longer perform his job.

Finally, the council is trying to punish Mack for his transgressions, both real and perceived, against them. This does not do anything to him as a mayor — “I’ll work for free,” he recently declared. But it does hurt his family, and that doesn’t seem the proper action for a council that has taken the moral high ground and wagged its proverbial finger at Mack during his lowest moments.

We ask this to the council: What real difference will that $66K make for the 2013 budget? Can that amount of money removed from Mayor Mack’s pocket turn this city around, or is it just a pebble in a lake? We believe the latter.

Just one other question: If Mayor Mack does go, voluntarily or otherwise, who are you going to get to run this city effectively for $60,000? Good luck with that, ladies and gentlemen.

The council has the legal right to lower the mayor’s salary, but what’s legal is not always right. This move is wrong, and it would eliminate any chance of Mayor Mack working with the other elected city officials to actually make life better for Trentonians.